Okay, before we begin, there are some things we must know about El Guincho. First of all, El Guincho is one man, Pablo Díaz-Reixa, and he named his album after the uninhabited island of Alegranza, which is at the northeastern tip of the Canary Islands, which are—of course this is common knowledge—an autonomous domain of Spain located on the west coast of Africa. Díaz-Reixa is from these Canary Islands, and, via Barcelona, he creates swirling and excitable indie pop using loops and samples and an amalgam of musical influences ranging from Benga (Kenyan traditional music) to Bhangra (Indian folk) to any brand of tropicalia that flies well above the head of our good friend Jimmy Buffett....

Connoisseurs of fearless experimentalism should be happy about the existence (and subsequent popularity) of Animal Collective. The New York headquartered quartet have been around since 2000, making their strange and wonderful music over the course of eight albums, the last two of which have made them indie-household names. While members are prolific in their own right, with member Noah Lennox's recent Panda Bear offering Person Pitch sure to grace the top of the best......

Modest Mouse – We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank From the opening moments of WWDBTSES—god, even the acronym’s a mouthful—it's apparent that Modest Mouse frontman Isaac Brock has become a capital-R Rock Star, perhaps the oddest one since David Byrne: track one, “March Into The Sea,” finds the newly-svelte songwriter frothing and howling from word one. The man hasn't lost his knack for colorful illustrations of human nature, tossing off wry observations like......

Andrew Bird Armchair Apocrypha (Fat Possum) In a strange small way, Bird's violin and trademark whistle takes a backseat (driver) position on Armchair Apocrypha, allowing more emphatic drumming and leading guitars to rise to the occasion. The album is undoubtedly Bird, showcasing songs about mountains of handkerchiefs and Scythian empires, violin picking and soaring harmonies supporting his soothing croon as expected. "Imitosis" finds his songwriting taking a slight turn in a darker direction, while......